


don't judge a librarian by his terrible haircut

by princegrantaire



Category: The Libertines
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Comedy, not really but theyre young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-23 18:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6126391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princegrantaire/pseuds/princegrantaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter is a librarian, Carl is some kind of disaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> it's some kind of college au? possibly? basically they're significantly younger (also forgive the title but i couldnt think of anything else book related)

The librarian’s name is Pete (short for Peter, presumably), he’s inordinately tall with unreasonably huge eyes and very fluffy-looking hair. That’s the extent of Carl’s knowledge so far.

The problem is Carl can’t really get away with going into the library for no reason, it could do some serious damage to his reputation (he’s barely got any friends but he likes to think he does, at the very least, have some kind of impressive reputation). The first time he walked in there was during a rainstorm and he’s only returned a couple of times since then.

He fell in love with Pete as soon as their eyes met across the room. Carl, soaked to the skin and dripping water everywhere, had come running into the library because of the storm and had simply sat in the middle of the room for a moment or two, trying to decide what to do. It was then that Pete had appeared from some back room and Carl had found himself staring at him.

He’s now certain Pete must have said something but Carl, overcome with embarrassment at being caught staring, had rushed to the farthest corner of the library. The only reason he knows Pete’s name is because he’d said it as Carl left and Carl, as usual only able to think of something to say four hours and thirty minutes after any social situation, had only managed to nod and practically run outside.

He’s repeated all the details to himself far too many times, desperately trying to find something that would assure him Pete doesn’t just think he’s some kind of bumbling idiot but he’s found nothing of the sort. That’s the exact reason he’s visited the library on two other occasions but unfortunately he hadn’t seen Pete the last time he had been there. A pretty, blonde girl had been in charge then but she had shushed Carl every time he had tried to ask about Pete so he had simply walked out.

That had been at the beginning of the week and now, as Carl finds himself idly looking at the TV, he decides desperate times call for desperate measures and it wouldn’t be that much of a tragedy if he went to the library _twic_ e in _one_ week.

As soon as Carl enters the library he realizes he’s made two enormous mistakes. First of all, his boots are horribly loud in the deafening silence of the library and secondly, he had forgotten the very crucial fact that John had specifically said he’d be studying in the library this afternoon. The very same John that’s staring at him right now.

Carl turns to look at the door, then back at John, then again at the door and back again at John, who is now frowning and possibly wondering why he ever befriended someone like Carl. He sighs and starts walking towards John’s table.

“Is the librarian here?” he asks as he sits down.

“Tall guy with big eyes? Yeah. Why?”

Carl just shrugs and looks around, wondering if the whole thing would be less suspicious if he put his sunglasses on right now.

“ _Please_ don’t put your sunglasses on,” John says.

Carl glares at him and puts his sunglasses back in his jacket. Just then he realizes someone is coming their way, someone who might be Peter. Carl startles and quickly takes one of John’s books.

Peter smiles at him as he passes and Carl is faced with the chilling realization that he’s holding the book upside down.

“Please kill me when you’ve got some time,” he whispers to John and sits up, walking quickly towards the door. There’s only so much embarrassment he can bear in one day.

Carl’s leaning against the building, smoking and hopefully looking somewhat cool and not like he’s just destroyed any chance he might have had with Pete, when someone asks him for a cigarette. He hands them one without looking up but it occurs to him a moment later that he knows that voice.

“Pete?” he says, finally looking up. This is, presumably, his last chance at not being some kind of walking disaster around the cute librarian that’s been occupying his thoughts for so long.

“You remembered!” Peter seems genuinely surprised as he says it, all the while smiling very earnestly.

Carl can’t quite believe just how in love he is with someone who’s practically a stranger.

“I’m Carl,” he says finally, shaking Pete’s hand.

“Carl _os_ , huh? Very nice. Want to get a coffee together?” Pete asks, seemingly having found a new name for Carl.

Carl just nods and smiles, already missing the warmth of Pete’s hand in his and hoping he’ll get to feel it again soon.


	2. the one with the poetry book

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete's and Carl's date isn't exactly what either of them expected.

Carl’s date with Pete goes surprisingly well, or at the very least it goes much better than Carl had expected. He somehow doesn’t embarrass himself beyond a socially-acceptable level, he barely stutters and he doesn’t accidentally insult Pete. In fact, things don’t take a turn for the worse until they get to Pete’s place.

It’s more than Carl could have asked for during a date with what he has believed for the past few weeks to be the love of his life so he thinks it’s quite evident something’s bound to go wrong, he just didn’t expect it to happen this way.

It all starts when they get to Pete’s tiny flat. Carl smiles in what he hopes to be a reassuring way as Pete apologizes for the mess and goes in search of something to drink.

There’s a lot less kissing involved than Carl had expected. In fact, nothing of the sort has happened so far. He’s not particularly worried though considering it’s just a first date but he had maybe (definitely) gotten his hopes up for a few moments when Peter had asked him back to his place.

It’s during this brief respite, while he’s sitting stiffly on the couch and Pete’s in the kitchen, that Carl notices the Siegfried Sassoon book on the coffee table. A moment later he realizes that, in fact, there’s an entire stack of copies of the very same book next to the couch and a few more are strewn around the room.

They’re all the exact same poetry book Carl had spent literally weeks looking for a little while ago. None of the bookshops in the neighbourhood had seemed to have it and he’d gotten the same response from the library (that had been the only other instance he had been to the library before the whole Pete situation) and thanks to that he’d failed an assignment. He hadn’t been particularly bothered then but he’s downright _baffled_ now.

Carl storms into the kitchen, which should be dramatic but he manages to run directly into Pete and cause him to spill the possibly alcoholic drinks he was holding. He glances at their drenched shirts and then up at Peter.

“Why do you have a thousand copies of the same book?” is what Carl wants to ask but “I love your eyes” is what comes out instead.

Pete clears his throat and steps away from Carl, apparently a little embarrassed.

“Thanks and sorry,” Pete says, gesturing vaguely in the direction of Carl’s shirt.

Carl laughs, somewhat awkwardly, and mumbles something along the lines of “don’t worry” before he asks Pete if he can borrow a shirt.

Pete puts the now empty glasses on the counter and takes Carl’s hand (Carl might make a sort of squeaky sound at this but Pete doesn’t seem to notice) and leads him to his bedroom.

“Do you live here alone?” Carl asks as Peter rummages through his closet.

“God no,” Peter laughs. “I could never afford it by myself, as tiny as it is. I live with Gary…um, Gary Powell, I’m sure you know him? He’s out tonight though.”

Carl does, in fact, know Gary and he’s rather delighted to note that he and Pete have at least one friend in common, at least until he notices another stack of what appears to be “The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon” on the windowsill.

Pete hands him a t-shirt, possibly the smallest one he owns, and Carl quickly puts it on, choosing not to feel particularly insulted by the fact that Peter doesn’t even glance at him while he’s changing. Either way, the t-shirt is several sizes too big for Carl and he feels a bit ridiculous.

“You really like war poetry, huh?” Carl asks as Peter changes his own soaked shirt.

The look Peter gives him is almost comical, big eyes become even bigger and his mouth even opens a little, but Carl only takes that as confirmation that something weird is indeed going on.

“Yeah, sure do,” Peter says eventually, smiling at Carl in a way that makes Carl forget his own name for several seconds.

They end up watching a film, cuddled up on the couch in the living room. They hold hands nearly the entire time, which Carl finds both disgustingly cute and oddly thrilling.

Carl nearly forgets about the books, at least until he goes to the bathroom and stumbles over another pile of books, this one in the middle of the hallway, on the way there.

“Pete, can I ask you something that might be a bit personal?” he says once he gets back.

“Of course!”

Carl sits back back down on the couch, making sure to avoid eye-contact with Pete since that seems to have a history of distracting him from the task at hand. He takes a deep breath.

“Why do you have so many copies of the same Sassoon book?”

“ _Oh_. You’ve noticed.”

Pete seems almost disappointed, if not surprised, and Carl nearly starts laughing. He’s almost certain it’s impossible not to notice that Pete’s _entire_ flat is littered with piles and piles of books, Carl actually thinks one of them might have meowed at him earlier.

“It’s…it’s a pretty long story actually,” Peter starts. “And I mean, of course I’ll tell you but please, _please_ don’t be mad at me.”

Carl desperately hopes Pete’s story doesn’t involve anything potentially dangerous or illegal, mostly because he knows for a fact he’s too far gone for Pete and would be willing to help him avoid being caught for the theft of all the volumes of “The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon” in the world.

“Well that day in the library wasn’t the first time I’d see you around the campus and well…when I first saw you I thought you were really pretty and I might have mentioned that to Gary? Okay, I might have told Gary about you for a few hours but that’s irrelevant. So basically he told me that he knows you and that you were working on some assignment for a class, something related to Sassoon and…”

“You bought all the poetry books you could find in the entire neighbourhood?” Carl interrupts, incredulous.

“Well yes, I was hoping that, well, it’d get you to come to the library,” Pete replies with a sheepish smile.

“But the library didn’t have the book!”

“I know but I didn’t count on that. So my plan kinda failed, at least till you came in that day during the thunderstorm.”

Carl does actually start laughing at that and a minute later Pete joins in.

“So you don’t think that’s creepy or anything like that?” Pete asks a few moments later and for a second he seems incredibly worried.

Carl smiles, shyly, and shakes his head before he leans forward and kisses Pete briefly.

“Does that answer your question?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took ages to finish but i hope you all enjoy it! x


End file.
